According to Wikipedia, persistent squad numbers were introduced by the FA in 1993. Prior to this, when Nevin was playing for us from 1983-1988 there would have been traditional 1-11 numbering for whichever starting players there were each game.

If i remember correctly from listening to my Dad, Pat mainly played on the left so he'd likely have been wearing number 11 most of the time. Don't quote me on that though, i wasn't yet born.

Ultra Boost ST - arrived today, and I feel like I'm walking on the firstborn child of a cloud and a marshmallow. Bought this pair solely for running but I may have to buy the regular UBs for everyday wear. http://i.imgur.com/NYhiiLG.jpg

Is this the kid who supposedly had Villa etc in his pocket in the MLS last year? I'm afraid i'm not familiar with the league.
Any NYRB fans able to give us an idea as to his potential? Are we talking someone ready to make the step or our next loan ranger?

edit: Thanks all for the plethora of answers, pretty mixed response so I guess only time will tell. Fingers crossed he does a Zouma!

I think that part of the intrigue of all of the politics and warring is the state it leaves the realm in. Without the WW the worst end-game is a weakened realm run by a third tier House from the Vale because every other valid candidate has been killed in battle, by shadow baby or at a wedding (be it Red or Purple).

The Others up the ante and leave it in the back of our mind that while all of this is happening, there is the increasingly real possibility that all human life on Westeros could be made extinct when the hammer finally falls. They act to contextualise the horrors and schemes against an absolute.

I honestly don't care who is the Lord in Winterfell for the continuation of normal life but i sure as hell don't want it to be some numpty with a great agriculture policy if I know they're going to have to lead the fight against Ice Demons and spider-mounts.

There's a theory that Aerys slept with Tywin's wife (one of those old traditions that the Liege Lord gets the first night of marriage). Basically Tywin fancied Joanna and creeped on her pretty brazenly, incest is very Targaryen-y and Cersei is a bit of a pyromaniac.

I'm not sure that the timelines quite match up but it would explain Tywin hating and ultimately fucking up Aerys, and the irony of Tyrion being his only 'true' son even though he's spent his whole life being told he isn't a true Lannister would be pretty huge.

There will be something more detailed on /r/asoiaf if you can sift through the tinfoil circlejerk, this is off the top of my head and probably misses some stuff.

If they really wanted to promote the good play they could make it so that x-amount of green cards could cancel a yellow card and that a player could effectively delay a 1 game suspension by using their green cards to erase their 5th yellow.

I suppose it could also go hand in hand with qualifying for Europe via the fair play league in widely adopted, but still think it's a very idealistic pipe dream.

Not a clue, i've been waiting for the same. You'd think with a big player coming in the day before the third kit launch they would have pushed it through onto the site to take advantage of the hype, so my theory is that we might be losing a lower number (11 almost certainly, perhaps 7 if the Rami rumours are to be believed).

I'm waiting until the window closes before i go for it just to be safe...

I'd argue that while they're both big men Fellaini's play style is easier for Zouma to counter - he was mainly a target man and Zouma just had to jump with him to win it or put him off enough to make a mistake.

Yaya however drops deep, makes runs and goes for long one-twos with the rest of his midfield, he's like a freight train gaining momentum over the final two thirds of the pitch. That's why last season Willian did so well countering him, he nipped in and out from between their defence and our midfield two to win the ball before Yaya could find his feet and get moving.

Just my opinion anyway, i think we should play Willian and Oscar to pester the big man and not sacrifice the passing ability in the middle that Zouma quite understandably lacks.

Love Zouma but i don't think he's got the fitness required to man mark a midfielder, especially Toure. He's a beast but he doesn't have midfield legs, you can really tell when he plays in the middle of the park that he's properly shagged out by the end.